The Ringer NFL Show - Wild-Card Weekend Fantasy and Trivia Night

Episode Date: January 8, 2021

We preview each game from wild-card weekend and debut our new playoff competition format that includes a three-way DFS tournament, trivia faceoffs, and last-second lineup audibles. Colts-Bills (3:04) Rams-Seahawks (15:07) Bucs-Washington (19:39) Ravens-Titans (24:19) Bears-Saints (33:07) Browns-Steelers (39:39) Email us trivia questions for our show! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, we preview each game from Wild Card Weekend and debut our new daily fantasy competition format. We have trivia showdowns or trivia faceoffs or something. I don't know. It needs a better name. But it's fun. And somehow I get stuck with the Titans defense, which is not so fun. Stick around.

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Heifitz. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. Guys, it's the playoffs. We're there. What are we doing here? So here's the thing. So fantasy football doesn't really exist in the playoffs per se.

Well, not normal style, yeah. Not normal style. So we're going to do a game. That's what we're going to do for the playoffs. We have entered with three separate daily fantasy lineups. We've all made them separately. And we're going to compete. We're going to do this every round of the playoffs.

And we're going to see who can get the most points through the end of the playoffs in the four rounds. So we don't really have stakes for this yet, which is probably a mistake. we probably should have figured it out by yet by now. But if people have ideas for what we should be betting on here, emails at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Keep in mind, we're all in different cities in America. None of us can go outside. And it's a global pandemic.

We can't do that. What is it, the nine for nine or the nine hot dogs and nine years and nine innings? A virtual nine nine. We have to do that at some point when the world is back to normal. But yeah. We do a virtual nine-nine. I would do that. So sad.

So we're going to go game by game. game, we're going to preview all the playoff games, and we're going to talk about the players we've chosen in our lineups for those playoff games in our lineups. But there's one wrinkle. We can't use the same players. Correct. And if we have any

overlap between those players, we immediately launch into a trivia showdown. Battle Royale. Well, it's not a battle royale. It's like one-on-one. War. Whatever. Like trial by combat, but Giuliani ruined that term. But anyways, you will hear

this sound. And then we will go through a trivia. You'll say. You'll get the hang of it. It's fun. And then whoever gets the trivia question right

or is closer, we'll get the player. They get to keep them. And then the person who loses the trivia question must take a player of equal or lesser value at the position in the same game.

I don't think it should be equal. It should have to be less. Can't be equal. Yeah, lesser value. Because that's what you lost, right? You lost.

There you go. You'll get the hang of it. It'll be fun. It'll be easy. Let's just jump right in, guys. Sure. Bill's Colts is the first playoff game of the weekend. This one's going to be a lot of fun.

D.K., do you have any players in this game? I do indeed. I have two. I'm going to start with the quarterback. I got Josh Allen of the Bills. Ooh, ballsy. I know. This one is, I'm digging deep here.

I'm going out on a limb. Josh Allen, who has 15 touchdowns and two interceptions in the last five games, 117 pass rating in his last five games. They have gone absolutely nuclear on people over the last like month and a half. I mean, they're just blowing people out. They blew out

the dolphins who had their playoff lives on the line and dropped 56 points on I think the team that had they'd given up the fewest amount of points in the NFL to that point and then they dropped 56 on them. So I'm gonna, I'm just rolling the dice with the guy who's like the hottest of any NFL quarterback right now other than maybe like Aaron Rogers. He's also got that

rushing upside which I like. And I could picture a world. where he just goes absolutely off and has like three rushing or three passing touchdowns another rushing touchdown and just locked in so I'm rolling on

I'm rolling with Alan obviously he was expensive $9,000 but yeah not the most expensive Lamar was $300 more than Josh yeah I think that's probably due to the fact that Tennessee's defense is not good

and the Colts defense is good but I'm still betting on Alan this is a good start because I have Josh Allen too I have Josh Allen too I have Josh Allen I mean everything you just said. I mean, probably cost Brian Flores coached the year last week because of the weekend. But here's the bills are averaging 47 points per game, like in their last three weeks.

It's ridiculous. Can you think about that? And then the other thing, it's nuts. The other thing I like is just they pass when they're up. Yeah, that's the teams that bleed to the clock with running the ball. They're just keep piling. That's how you get to 47 points per game. Yeah, that's how you have Kamar and your fantasy team and you still lose because you went up against Stefan Diggs and Josh Allen. You're like, well, surely they're going to start running the ball. Nope, Stefan Digg. 28 yards. Don't call me Shirley. And that's the thing.

And so the other part of this is the Colts, the Colts defense was kind of good in the first six weeks of the season, but they've been pretty bad recently. They're actually giving up almost 300 yards per game, passing yards per game in the last, or since week 11, which is the second worst in the entire NFL.

So the Colts defense is not only not good anymore. It's pretty bad past defense-wise. So I'm not really confident they're going to be able to stop Alan. I mean, if any, he's a little worse against zone coverage than man and the Colts play a lot of zone, but still, I'm not really worried. I feel like Diggs and Allen are going to be great.

So I like that. The other person to have in this game is I actually got Gabe Davis. Gabe. Gabe Dave. Basically, Cole Beasley could miss this game, which would be a little, oh, that's interesting. Yeah. But he had more than 100 year, I think 107 yards in a touchdown last week.

So I just like Gabe Dave. And even if Cole Beasley plays, he can still be a thing. Gabe Dave. I just like Gabe Dave. The bills are so crazy stacked at wide receiver. You don't really think about it because John Brown's been gone half the year, but, God, they have so many good receivers. They're amazing.

D.K., did you have anyone else in this game? It was just Josh Allen. I have one other guy in this game. I'm going with running back Naheem Hines for the Colts. And the reason I'm doing that is I needed to get a guy who was a little bit cheaper. Heinz is my flex guy. He's 5,600 on the week. So, you know, I just wanted to go for a guy with kind of a lot of upside.

And I'm looking at this game. I'm wondering if it will be a good game script. The game script will be advantageous for a guy like Heinz, who's like more of the past catching back here. if the Colts get behind early on, have to kind of like put it into overdrive and start passing the ball a little bit more. Obviously, I think if they had their druthers,

they would just run the ball really hard all game long with Jonathan Taylor and then Heinz wouldn't be that fall. But if they fall behind like two touchdowns early in the game and we've seen the bills just jump on people, then they're going to have to like pass the ball more. Philip Rivers loves passing, like dropping, you know, checking down to his running back or whatever. And so I think that's going to be a big factor in this game.

Heinz, to me, is still, one of those guys who could just kind of out of nowhere have two touchdowns and it wouldn't surprise me at all. So he's had, he has had that like solid eight, nine point floor over the last month. But he could also have like a 20 point game and it wouldn't surprise me at all. Yeah, so I also have Naim Hines. Oh, shit. So like we're two battles. We have two off the bat here.

Two off the bat for D.K. Specifically. So we'll face off with that. Just at top off Naim Hines. This weather, this game is going to be freaking cold. It's going to be in the 30s. Phil Rivers has not played a lot of important games in the cold San Diego

His old creaky arm All he's gonna be able to do is check down to Niheminds anyway I love checkdown guys in the playoffs I always go back to thinking about James White And I mean it's just so easy It's like clockwork like you can rack up 10 targets Like it's nothing as a checkdown guy For like a veteran quarterback in the playoffs

I love James White and I love Nihim Hines this week For every reason DK said Also it's just a two It's really kind of a two main committee now in Indie Like that whole Jordan Wilkins thing is gone. It's just Taylor and it's and it's Hines. And, you know, Heinz is still averaging 10 touches a game over the last five weeks. If they get down early, it'll probably be closer to 15.

Craig's the weather correspondent. Is it nuts that we're ignoring Jonathan Taylor after he had 253 yards? Or you just think it's a game story? No, he's just way more expensive. Yeah, he's way more expensive. I mean, if you look at him, he's the third most expensive running back and they might get killed. So it's kind of hard to convince yourself. I mean, that's the other thing.

I just want to say, I want to add to that real quick before we get into these. battles. The last five games, the Coltsev had like pretty much only positive game script, it feels like. Well, they've been playing bad defense. They had the Texans twice, the Raiders, and the Jags. And I believe in all those games

they were up. It could be wrong. In fact, they were actually they were down, or they were leading the Steelers even for like the first whatever it was, three quarters. I don't know when the Steelers came back and took the actual team. Yeah, but I mean, all these games, you have positive game scripts. This is

big part of the reason that Jonathan Taylor had like this massive huge second half of the year. And in this game, I think I could see it going differently. So that was kind of what I wanted to add. Okay, who else did you have? We'll do showdowns at the end of each game. Yeah, so this is a really jam-packed game. I feel like a lot of us have a lot of players. I mean, it's the second highest total point total of the week at 51.

Maybe it's because the bills are scoring 47 points per game in the last three weeks. Because of that, I'm showing out. I'm so sick of not having Stefan Diggs. This is why I love Daily Fantasy. I have, I'm buying Stefan Diggs and I'm buying Stefan Diggs and I'm, buying John Brown this week. John Brown coming back from injury. Honestly, this is all because I can't afford Josh Allen and I would have loved to have

had Josh Allen. So, I'm ready to be the guy who inflicts pain upon you two with the Bill's passing game. And I don't Stefan Diggs has an oblique injury. I don't buy it. I hope that scares people away. He said he's had it for... What's an oblique anyway? He said he's had it for weeks

when everyone was like, that's news to us. I think that's nothing. He'll be fine. All right. Okay. So with that said, we have two challenges. to do here. So, D.K. and I are going to go head to head for trivia question. Okay, here we go. Whoever's closer gets to keep Josh Allen in their lineup

and the loser basically has to take Philip Rivers. Okay, wait, I got to put the gong sound, right, so I'll do it. Showdown time. We'll think of a better term for that. Yeah, email, you have a better idea for the second. E-Novemastasy football at gmail.com. We've got to come up with a name. Why did we not workshop that a little? Showdown time. Okay, so, okay. All right.

this is from Andrew how many gallons of water are in Lake Michigan Oh my God Whoever is closer We'll get Josh Allen Lake Michigan is fucking massive This is one of those

This is like one of those questions Where I don't even know If I'm even in the right stratosphere Scale You could be off by a billion And it would be like nothing I'm going to say 10 billion.

I don't fucking know. Yeah, 10 billion. Okay, Danny Kelly says 10 billion. Highfis. Probably too much. I don't know. I'm going to say... Don't price is right me.

I was going to say 9.9. No, I'll say, I'm going to say 5 billion. It's probably in the millions. So Danny Kelly said 10 billion. Danny Hyphen said 5 billion with a B. Yes. According to satellite measurements, Lake Michigan holds one quadrillion gallons of one.

We wait. undersold it. So I guess D.K. wins. The D.K. gets chuffed out. Wait, what's a quadrillion? I don't even know how many billions is that. It's above a trillion, right?

We skip a trillion, you go right to a quadrillion. 1,000 raised to the power of five. That doesn't help. Thanks. How many zero? So there you go. Like 15?

No, it's more than it. It's billion, trillion. So we were off by. zeros. We were off by like several standard deviations. Just to show you guys how off you were. Just to show you how off you were, it says Lake Michigan is so vast that you would need to drain about 400 billion gallons from it just to lower the level by one inch. Oh my God. Wait, what did I say 50 billion?

Ten. Ten. Just 10. Five. Oh my God. We were so far off. So you get, all right. We have one more of these to do. Just a bit outside. So I won that, though. Yeah, you won. So I have to take Philip Rivers in my lineup now.

This sucks. Congratulations, D.K., Josh Allen. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm excited. Okay. Next one.

So now I'll do the next one here. So now you guys get to fight over. Who you're fighting over? Nah, Nah, Hines. How are you guys fighting over to Heem Hines? And I'm not even involved with Neheme Hines. I was on a...

No, no. Unbelievable. And how am I with Josh Hound? I love Josh Hound. Okay. This is a question from Peter. Peter. Sheikille O'Neal holds the record for the biggest total purchase in the history of

Walmart. How much did he spend? How much did he spend at Walmart in one go? At one time. One is in 2008. What could you buy at Walmart for that much? That's what I'm thinking of. It's like a lot of six packs of seven up or what?

I'm just picturing like how many carts did he have? Can't you buy like furniture from Walmart? I haven't been in a Walmart in years. I doubt Shacks buying a Walmart couch. You could buy alcohol at some places. Maybe? No? Actually, Walmart, maybe not. How do we decide who guesses first? Because I feel like it influences who gets his second. That's true. I went first last time. You go first this time.

Okay, okay. I'm going to say Shaq spent, because you got to imagine people have probably bald. Well, the first one anchors the second one. I know. I'm going to say Shaq spent $32,000. That's it. Wait, I want to know what you picture him buying with that $32,000. Honestly, I feel like it had to be for like a hurricane life. He had to buy like the whole, I feel like it had to be for like a good. cause, right? Like a charity thing? Oh, that's... Hyphitz, what are you doing, dude? What are you doing? I don't know. I don't know the answer. I'm guessing. You're the moderator, though. You don't get this.

He's probably right. He's probably right. This was probably some like... No, oh, pining. Okay. I'm going to say... That wasn't a good move for me. Look, I'm not going to try and just like one up Craig by saying whatever. I'll just say $1.2 million. There you go. I actually screwed D.K. It was only $70,000.

Oh. So my own. binding actually helps you, Craig. 70 grand. He bought an incredible amount of soda. So there you go. So Dekh gets Josh Allen. I do Philip Rivers. Craig gets Neheme Hines. Dekha, you have to take a running back of lesser value in the Bills Colts game.

Oh, God, in the same game. I forgot about this. So I got 5,700. I could take. You got to go Moss. Yeah, I'm going to do, I'm going to do Zach Moss putting him in, 5500. Congrats. All right.

Beautiful. All right. Let's go to the next game here. Next one point. Quadrillion. You should have, that's what he should have said. Quadrillion dollars.

Okay. Next game on Saturday. Ram's Seahawks. Dic, do you have anyone in this game? This is really funny. All of our players. Technically,

I do. I have the Rams defense, which is 4,900. Obviously, very talented defense. Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Ballers.

One of the better defensive coordinators and Staley, Brandon Staley. Do you know how Brandon Staley got the job? I read this this week. Brandon Staley was the defensive coordinator for like John Carroll University, which is a good school in Division III. And he made them the best defense in football.

This is a great story of an ESPN this week. And he basically goes to this job interview with Sean McVeigh for 12 hours and is like, I want to do this Division III scheme I have with the Rams. And I want Jalen Ramsey to be like the D3 cornerback I had. And I want Aaron Donald to be like this D3 defensive lineman I had. Oh, that's fascinating. And now they gave up the fewest points and fewest yards and fewest first downs in the NFL.

Jeez. The Rams are the most expensive defense on Fandall this week. In addition to just being really talented, I think this defense knows that they're going to have to rise to the occasion because their offense is potentially going to be starting John Wolford. Wofford?

Wofford. How do you say his last? Wofford. I keep confusing with that Wofford, the college, that is always like the 14 seat in March Badness. Yeah. I just keep thinking that way. I mean, I don't know. We don't know.

We don't know if Goff is going to start yet or not, but I think either way, the Rams defense knows it's going to have to step up. The Seahawks offense has not been good lately. It's basically been sort of broken, in fact, like Russell Wilson just hasn't looked the same. He's been struggling, kind of like seeing things, not pulling the trigger, not being very aggressive. I mean, when Aaron Donald is involved, I could see a strip sack happening with Russell Wilson. I could see, you know, an interception happening. So I'm going with the Rams defense just because I think they're playing really hot right now. And I think the Seahawks offense has just not been good.

Russ was sacked 11 times in the two Seahawks games this year so that's not great Yeah It's not great But I actually went the other way I have the Seahawks defense I did too As you said oh you do too

Oh yes let's go I mean John Walford might play That's all it is I get to host the trivia question I'm stoked about this It's okay it's John Walford playing The Seahawks are the cheapest defense And the Rams are the most expensive

Which is a little weird to me Considering one defense is going up against Russ And the other is going up against Walford Here's the problem here high fits If one of us loses we get the Rams D? No, no, no, no, no, that's not how this works. If one of us loses, the loser has to take the Titans defense, which is cheaper.

In this exact circumstance, it's cheaper. In this circumstance, it'll have, usually I feel like this won't happen. So the loser this going gets the Titans D, which is pretty tightens D. Okay. That's bad. Okay. D.K., hit us with a trivia question. Okay, so.

Wait, wait, wait, Craig. It is showdown time. God, we need a new name for that. Oh, my God. Okay, D.K., give us the trivia question. All right. Here you go. This is from Colin.

The country of Morocco is closer in distance to the United States than it is to the country of South Africa. What is the distance between Morocco and the United States? Okay. Wow, so this is essentially saying Morocco, like, the distance from Morocco, which is in northern Africa to the bottom, South Africa, is longer than it is to the United States. Oh, I see, yeah. Morocco is closer to the U.S. than it is to South Africa, in other words. What's the difference between Morocco and the U.S.?

How many miles? How many miles just from the edge of the U.S. to Morocco? Yeah. Jesus. Say Casablanca. I think it's 8,000. That's a nice guess. Okay.

I think it's a little less. I think it's 6,200 miles. Okay. Hold on. How do you want me to do this math? Because, like, do you want me to do the bottom? Man, D-K. No, like, do you want me to do it from the bottom left tip of Morocco, like the most western part of Morocco?

What happened to you just Google? How far is Morocco from America? It doesn't say anything. I just Google it. It's 4,900 miles. Craig wins. Doesn't matter what city you pick. I'm going to lose.

4,900. Okay. Bang, bang, 2-0, baby. Congrats Craig. Shit. Trivia King. That makes sense now. The Showdown King.

It was a terrible guess. All right, let's move on here. All right, so I get the Titans defense. God damn it. Congrats. This is awful. Okay. Dumb rules of these.

All right. Next game up we got here. This is Saturday night. This is like the primetime game. This is Buccaneers Washington. Shitty primetime game. I don't know why this is the primetime game. Because they wanted the Steelers on Sunday or whatever.

Kind of freaking question is that. Why is the most famous player in the primetime slot? It should have been the bills. Should have been the bills. Do you got, D.K., do you have anyone? from this in this matchup? I do indeed. I have Chris Godwin at receiver for the Buccaneers. So matchups wise this game is actually kind of interesting because the Washington defense is in a

really good front four so they're going to be able to rush and this is like long been the cliche book on Brady is to like rush with four and get pressure and then like you know play good solid coverage in the back in the Saturday. I watch those Super Bowls, don't worry. Big fan. Yeah so basically we're doing like the Giants blueprint here. And I think it's going to be like interesting to see how they they mitigate what happens up front and how they're getting pressure. Long story short, I think Godwin's going to get Pepper

with targets rather than like, you know, these longer developing plays downfield to Mike Evans or to Antonio Brown. I think the middle of the field does like little slant routes. I think they'll probably look to get Godwin involved on some screens because he's really strong after the catch. He's also just been heating up lately. He had he's had double digit points. in six out of his last seven games in terms of Fanduil points. And so he's, he's been really pretty solid. And I think he's going to be a big part of this game plan.

So I'm going with Godwin. I think he gets into the end zone. Nice. I like that. I do not have Godwin. I have Gronk in this game just because it's like Brady in playoff grunk. I know that, I mean, believe me, I'm a Giants fan. Like, believe me, I know the Brady against the bad defensive line thing.

And the thing with him being bad under pressure is real. Bill Barnwell pointed out this week that Brady's QBR with no pressure is like fifth. And then his QBR with pressure is like 31st. which is like Nick Mullins. Right. And if you want to, if you want to factor in like how Grant could benefit

from Mike Evans, even being on the field as a decoy, like Grant could immediately become the Red Zone guy much more than Mike Evans. And so, but having,

the interesting part to me is that the bucks are doing so many big plays. I think that the third most plays of like 20 plus yards this year, or past plays of 20 plus yards.

And Washington allows like the fewest along with the rims. But I keep coming back to, I just feel like the bucks are going to be able to grind out the win here and I'm pretty confident about it because if you're going to go with, well, they have a good pass rush and Brady's and Mobile.

What, is Alex Smith mobile all of a sudden? Like, we're just going to ignore that Washington's offense is like inept. They've become the worst offense in the league other than, I mean, they're worse than the Jets at this point. I mean, they can't do anything. Alex Smith ranks 34th, I think, in QBR. 35th is Haskins. There's only 35 guys eligible.

Like, this offense is bumbling. Isn't there potential that Hineke is going to play this week? Or, like, they're going to do some sort of like quarterback. Yeah. One, two punch. Yeah, the one-two punch. I have Larry Little faith in the Washington offense. I feel like the Bucks are in the role, even though despite the past first.

And I love the Washington defense. It has only happened twice in NFL history that an underdog at home in the playoffs is getting more than a touchdown. I mean, seven and nine. But the seven and nine team always wins, though. That's the thing. That's the one of the two. Because yeah, the Seahawks were one of the two. Oh, yeah.

By the way, read Hyphitz's article on the Beast mode or on the Beastquake, I should say. The seven and nine Seahawks beat the Saints that year. was one of the greatest moments of my life. As a Seahawks fan? Yeah. They were 10-point underdogs. The other one, can you guys guess what the other game was?

Underdog, by more than a touchdown? Was that home team? Because the Giants were on that list, but they weren't home, obviously. No. This is a very famous game that happened in the last 10 years. Was it the Giants against the Packers?

The NFC championship? I can't think of it. Who was it? Tebow. Oh, over the Steelers. Yeah. In that game, actually, Tebow had someone come in motion on that play.

I think it was Demarius Thomas. And the first 22 times they did that, they ran. And then the 23rd time they passed it. So Ryan Buck moved up. Anyways, let's keep rolling here. Sunday games, which I think are more fun. Ravens Titans. I imagine we have a lot of players in this game.

Yes. Yeah, so this game is the highest over end of the day. 55. All right, D.K., just roll through. Who are all the players you got in this? Let's go through all our players here, and then we'll talk about the game. Okay, so I got two guys in here.

Going back to our boy, Hollywood Brown. And I'm calling him Hollywood. I don't even care. He's earned it over the last like five, six weeks. Has he? He has.

He has one, two, three, four, five, six straight games, double digits. No, he's Bakersfield, Brown. Modesto. What's like a middle? North Hollywood.

What's like not quite, not a very bad town, but like not Hollywood, you know, maybe like. North Hollywood. He's North Hollywood, Brown. Like Venice Beach.

Yeah, Venice Beach is up and down, I suppose. Culver City. How about like Ventura Brown? He's been fine. He has not been Hollywood. Anyway, Santa Barbara Brown.

Because the actual neighborhood of Hollywood in LA is awful. Right. Yeah. Ironically, Hollywood is the right name for him because it's all flash and like, but being there's pretty bad. God, that's fucking harsh. D.K. Why do you like him in this game? All right. So, number one, I think

this game has a chance. I know that the Ravens offense or defense is good, but I think this game could end up being a shootout just because I think the Titans are really good offensively too. One of the best offenses in the NFL. And if Tennessee can get their offense rolling, get Derek Henry going, get Tannahill going, AJ Brown. I could see this being kind of like a punch for punch game.

And Lamar Jackson in that offense has gotten hot lately. And so Brown, you can't deny that he's got a huge target rate. He's a clear cut number one in that offense. They basically don't have anyone else. Mark Andrews is sort of the guy, but he's just been really, really inconsistent, hard to trust. And yeah, I mean, if you just look at his numbers, he's obviously been a little bit touchdown dependent over the last few weeks, but this is a big play offense. and he's emerged and helped Lamar Jackson get his confidence back.

And so they got like that little bit of like swagger, that confidence going into this game. And the Titans defense is terrible. I agree. So it's funny you use the word shootout because I finally realized what the Titans are, which are the Titans are a big 12 team, or maybe now the SEC team. And it didn't occur to me that they're a big 12 team.

And what I mean by that is all offense put up as many pile up points can't play defense to save their life. and it never occurred to me because they don't shoot, they don't pass. They run the ball with Derek Henry is how they're doing it. But it never occurred to me. But that's really the model of team they are. I mean, I think they're one of only five teams that scored more than 30 points per game. And then they also have allowed the most points on defense of any team that made the playoffs.

So they're going to pile of points in this game. I have in this game, I actually have Derek Henry because he's Derek Henry. And then I also have Mark Andrews for the Ravens. One, because Mark Andrews kind of was really bad for them when they lost to the Titans in the playoffs last year. And then also, I just don't think the Titans are going to stop them on defense. So the Ravens gained the most third down conversions this year, and the Titans allowed the most third down conversions. The Titans were by far the worst third down team. I mean, the Titans allowed more than 50% of third down conversions, which hadn't happened in years.

So I think the Ravens are going to just stay on the field longer. Yeah. So we got a lot of Baltimore pass catchers out of you guys. I got Hollywood. You have Andrews. I think the Titans have the worst pass rush maybe of any team to make the playoffs in like two or three decades.

Like they only have 19 sacks this year. I mean, this year they're one of the worst pass rushes. Like we talked about Clowny was a disaster and Vic Beasley was disaster, but they're like bottom two, bottom three in pressure rate. But if you just look at like teams that made the playoffs with fewer than 20 sacks, there's only three teams.

It's the Titans this year. And then it's like the Falcons in 1982. and like the charges of 1982. And 1982 is when they like started recording sacks as a stat. So since the year they invented sacks, no team with under 20 sacks has made the playoffs till this year. So I like Lamar as a passer actually on Sunday. Great year.

Who else you got, D.K.? I got Gus Edwards. Gus the bus. And number one for starters is because he's a lot cheaper than J.K. Dobbins. He's 5,700. And, you know, it's not obviously Dobbins is like the clear cut number one on that. But he's, he's definitely. getting a good amount of carries.

I could see him snip a touchdown in this game. Obviously, he's a big physical guy. He picks up yards after the catch. He's actually not terrible in the past game. He doesn't get a lot of targets, but he's made the most of his targets over the last couple weeks. Not last week, but two weeks before that, he picked up 37, 36 yards through the air. So I'm just going with Gus and hoping he steals a touchdown away from Dobbins.

Okay, so Craig, who do you have in this game? In this game, I have Derek Henry, and I have Corey Davis. both in the Titans. Why are you doing Henry? Why am I doing Derek Henry? What kind of question? I was like really, even by D.K. Standard, that slid under my radar. I wanted to see, I wanted to see Craig's face.

He was like, you almost triggered me. He was like, what? I actually have to Henry, too, so we're going to have to do a showdown. Oh, crap. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty simple. Obviously, Derek Henry ran for 2,000 yards this year. Last year, the Titans, the Titans two playoff wins last year, Derek Henry had 34 rushes and 30 rushes for 182 and then 195 years.

Jesus. that's what they do when they win games and one of those games was against the Ravens. I don't really see this being any different. I feel like he's getting 30 touches. It's what you said about Diggs. I just have FOMO. I just didn't have Henry on...

I wanted Henry on every one of my teams and that was not the case. And I just want to root for him in the playoffs. Like he's like... He's like fighting against the tide of the sport itself. Everything about the sport is like we're running less. And Derek Henry is out here, running for 2,000 yards.

And I mean, just getting 200-yard games in the playoffs is insane. He's been... He just gets... It's wild to me that. you can have, what is he have eight games with more than 180 yards in last two years and four of those eight

were like with a playoff birth or a playoff game on the line. Like that's fucking nuts. If you toss in his receiving yards he had 200 total yards in both those playoffs just so clutch. My other guy, so yeah, Corey Davis, I like. He's $6,400 bucks. So the Ravens have allowed the fewest points per game

to opposing number one wide receivers this season, which would be A.J. Brown. Corey Davis has had some of his best games this year against teams that limit opposing number one wide receivers. And the five games played against teams in the top 10 versus wide receiver ones, Davis has had three 100-yard games.

And this game is going to be a massive shooter. Interesting. So I really like Davis. I also just think he's still a little bit... He's just more talented than we think he is. I mean, the dude was like the fourth pick in the draft and he's finally coming into his own because he has a good quarterback

and he's building chemistry. I like Corey Davis a lot. Yeah. That's a great staff. I love Corey. They're definitely not, like, they're not afraid to be like, okay, we'll just pass this other guy.

he's awesome. Who do you guys think wins this game? I got the Ravens, but I think it's gonna be a good game. I think the Ravens, that's why I wanted Andrews. I kept doing my lineup and I was like, do I want Andrews?

I was like, yes, I think the Ravens are gonna win. I think they're gonna pass. I think that they're not calling it a revenge game. They're going out of their way to not call it a revenge game even the Titans just beat them

two months ago and beat him in the playoffs, but I really think they'll crush them. Not crush, but they're gonna pile points. Okay, so we gotta do a show down here between Craig and Eric Henry. All right. This is a big one. We're playing for the big dog.

Take us to the... It is showdown time. All right, so this one's from Aeryl. This is a trivia question from Aeryl. How many Bruce Springsteen songs have reached number one? So you've got to get a question right about the boss to get the big dog. I don't get this right. My mother is going to disown me.

Okay. I'm just going to feel it. I'm not even going to think too much. Bruce Springsteen number one songs. 14. If it just jumps in and steal. 14. Craig is like about ready to care.

I'm gonna say eight. How's my gut? Okay. So, wait, hyphids you said 14? I said 14. Zero. Oh. It's hard to get a number one song.

It's really hard to get a number one. Was it number one? This is according to what I just Googled it. It says Bruce Springsteen, this is from insider.com, might have some of the most recognizable songs in the world, but none of them have garnered a top spot in the hot 100. He's never hit 100. or number one on the hot 100. God.

3 and 0 for all Craig. Billboard.com, 20 surprising artists who've never had a hot 100 number one. My team is untouched. Wow. Oh my God. Okay, so Hyphitz, you have to drop the big dog. Now you're going to have to take like J.K. Dobbins.

J.K. fucking Dobbins. I mean, Dobbins is not a bad consolation prize, really. You could challenge D.K. right now for Gus. Yeah, just like a duel. I'm going to take J.K. I know a Philbrivers and J.K. Dobbins. I have $5,000

in my budget unused now because I cut it. That sucks. Okay. God damn. Let's just go on here. Bear Saints. D.K. What are you got? Just looking at the prices. Henry is $10,200 and he had to drop

down to Dobbins who's $6,800. All right. I mean, it might work out for you. Okay, so I have someone you might have heard of Alvin Camara. I feel like we don't have spent a lot of time on this. Assuming he plays, he's currently on the COVID list,

and he's, like, practicing virtually. He's got, like, this whole, like, connection headset thing to, like, practice. What? He's got an Oculus Rift, and he's running through the offensive lines. What I'm picturing. The Cardinals, like, five years ago. I'm going to go in a limb and say that doesn't help. He should just stretch at home.

Yeah, just rest. Craig's like, why are you trying? So I'm assuming, I'm assuming he's going to play. If he doesn't play, I'm going to have to change my lineup at the last minute. But this is, yeah, obviously just assuming he plays, he's really good. The last time he played, he had six touchdowns. So, I mean, I'm not expecting him to do that again. Analysis.

You know, just go like four or something. Right. I like that expert analysis of DK. My expert analysis is I took Latavius Murray, who's Alvin Kamara's backup because Alvin Kamara has coronavirus. Yeah. He's COVID-19. That's my expert analysis. That's what people come here for.

Yeah, he's currently not actually legally allowed to play. So we'll see. but yeah do you guys think the bears have a this is the biggest point spread of the game I think the Saints are giving like nine and a half or ten do you guys think the Bears have a chance because I have tried to talk myself into a scenario here

and I just see Mitchell Tribisky against the Saints D I'm a big believer in the Saints defense and I just think the Bears will be overwhelmed yeah so you're right the Saints are laying 10 I was wrong earlier the Bucks are laying 8 not 10 bucks are laying 8 Saints are laying 10 I don't so I was thinking about this game

and listening to a bunch of people talking about it And the one thing that keeps standing out to me is the bears have, their offense has been really hitting well over the last month plus because their run game has been so good. But they played nobody. Yeah, and that's the problem. The defense that played sucked. I could see the Saints, like, taking Montgomery out of this game,

you know, making him very inefficient. And then I could see this offense sort of crumbling because of that. We get back to like what we saw early in the year where Chavisky was being asked to do too much and it just didn't look good. Yeah, you stack the box, you blitz. them and make them hit people. I had to admit I was wrong about Josh Allen this season. I can't also be wrong about Chubisky and Allen in the same year. Like, emotionally, I could not handle being wrong about both those people at the same time. This would be a pretty damn big upset.

So I would, I would, which also makes me think it must happen because right how heartbreaking it would be for me personally. So yeah, I have Latavis Murray and I also completely snaked Michael Thomas from outside under Craig. I'm not going to lie. I saw that Craig had taken him and I was like, Oh, that's a great pick. I'm going to do that, too. I can't even lie. Like, I just was like, I want him. Michael Thomas is the ninth most expensive wide receiver on Fandul, which, like, I get it.

He hasn't played all year. But, like, he's maybe the best wide receiver in the league. He's $6,800. He hasn't played the Bears yet this season. He had 130 yards last year when he played him. I mean, he's Michael Thomas. Like, if he is actually healthy, he could put up Stefan Diggs numbers. Yeah, I think people get why Michael Thomas is good.

Let's just get to the showdown here. Showdown! I thought it was the showdown time. Oh yeah, it's showdown time. I feel like I'm doing it like, like, spooky. What's the thing of Rick and Morty where they're just, they're doing the, it's, oh, no, with the big talking heads. Dek has never seen it. Craig, do you watch Rick and Morty?

I've seen maybe 10 episodes. Nothing crazy. Damn, I can't remember the tagline from that episode. It's all right. Email us if you know what tagline Danny Hyvitz is talking about. D.K., give us a trivia question here. this is from Gavin. How many digits are there in the number of different ways a standard 52 card deck can be shuffled?

So in other words... Oh, my God. How many different ways in a deck of cards be shuffled? How many different, yeah, like iterations are there? But how many digits are, yeah, because you can't, you won't know the name of this number. So it's a big number. So how many digits? How many digits?

Oh, I see, I see, I see. Nine. Wait, like nine zeros? nine digits yeah so I'm gonna win this one because that's completely wrong because this is 52 times 51 times 50 times

49 all the way to one it's 52 I that's like more than like the atoms on earth oh okay like that's I'm gonna guess like say quadrillion no just say the number of digits

I'm gonna guess like 20 67 oh my god holy shit yeah no honestly that's more than Adams in the galaxy. Man, I made a bonehead choice here, and now I'm going to lose Michael Thomas

because Danny Hyford snaked me at the last goddamn second. So who do I got? 6,800. And I can't go more expensive, right? I can't take Alan Robinson in this game. Hyphids, you said it. There are more ways to arrange a deck of cards

than there are atoms on Earth. That can't be fucking right. No, I think that is true. That is insane. It's an 8 followed by 67 zeros. Okay, I will take God. So Craig has to drop Michael Thomas.

And, God, this sucks. I can't take Robinson. So I got to take basically Emmanuel Sanders are like Darnel Mooney. Mooney had 13 targets last week. Yeah. He's also injured right now. He has an, what you call it?

An ankle injury. So does Michael Thomas? Damn, this absolutely blows. I'm going to do Darnel Mooney. He went from Michael. Thomas to Darnel Mooney. I'll trade you. If I get Henry back, I'll give you Thomas.

Ooh. So I'll give you Dobbins. Actually, no, I don't want Moody. I'm keeping Dobbins and Michael Thomas. Screw that. Never mind. I was a terrible deal. I was going to do that.

Okay, last game. Brown Steelers, this game's all fucked up because this is, I mean, we're recording this a Thursday, Thursday afternoon. I mean, Kevin Stefanski is the coach. He has COVID. Joel Petonio is the guard.

He's the best office line on the team. He has COVID. This sucks. They got one of their safety's dangerous and Dehiel off the COVID list. One of their other starting safeties, Ronnie Harrison, went on the COVID list. Denzel Ward, the best cornerbacks on COVID list.

Kevin Johnson, one of the other cornerbacks is on the COVID list. They might come off. We don't know. Malcolm Smith as well. Olivia Vernon tore his Achilles last week. Like, it's unbelievable. This team is so battered. Also, they can't really practice.

I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous. It's too bad because you'd like to celebrate that the Browns made the playoffs to the first time in 18 years. And instead, it's like, they're just the model of like, oh, well, will this game even be competitive? So it's kind of disappointing. But with all that said,

I feel like we probably all think the Steelers probably going to win. So, D.K., who do you have on this team? I'm going with Deonté Johnson, the old reliable, even though he's definitely not reliable. Sir drops a lot. Sir drops a lot.

Here's what's reliable. His target rate. He has double digit targets in seven or last nine games. And I think all those seven games were games he actually played the whole game. So, like, if he plays the whole game, game, he's definitely going to get like 12 targets. To me, like he's actually, you can talk about the drops. You can talk about the sloppy play and all that, which I think is valid. But he's

definitely, like his route running is important to what they do on offense. Like his ability to get open early on in his route, give Ben's like an early outlet. I think that's just all very important. So he's going to be a good part of this game plan. And he's even being used a little bit on deep routes lately. Like he's had, he's caught a couple like go routes like a seam route. Um, so I don't I'm just feeling good about Deontay Johnson. He's 7,000. With this receiving, like this group of receivers, it's always kind of tough to know who's going to, like,

have the big game. But Johnson, at least has that floor with the targets. Yeah, Dick, I actually have Deontay Johnson, too. Oh, you guys love him so much. I knew it. I was going to put him, and I was like, there's no way I could get away of having them. Here's a trivia question for you.

How many targets does Deonti Johnson have in the second half of the season? Oh, let me toss in a hint. He's six in the NFL on targets this whole season. Okay. so eight games. I'm going to say 101. Oh my God. He is 100. Yeah. I'm going to give you him because that's better than the trivia.

Are you fucking kidding me? God damn it. He's the most targets in the NFL in the second half of the season. I was just like 10 plus a few. 10 per game plus a few. I was like 101. Why not? So are we not doing the showdown? Well, I feel like he kind of won the show. He got my number to what. Here's the problem with the showdown is we're out of trivia questions. Oh, listen. I can come up. I can come up with one right now.

Okay. Let's do it. I want a trivia question. Yeah, because, Hyva, that's not fair to you. I mean, you just looked up a stat and then he guessed close to it. Okay. It's time for the final showdown of the episode. Okay.

Hmm. How many tackles did Dwayne the Rock Johnson record in college? Oh. So he played at Miami. I don't know how many years he played. Did he play four full years? I'm going to say, I'm going to say,

50. 50. Yeah, I feel like this is a trick question. I think it should be zero. You didn't even fucking play. I didn't know the answer until I asked it, so it wasn't a trick question. I think it would be zero. All right, so I'll just say

65. 77. Nice. Oh, my God. Oh, I didn't, oh, I didn't, oh my God. That's absolutely brutal. The Rock. How many sacks did he have?

4.25. That's so infuriating. You could have a quarter sack. Wait, so I got to lose Deonte 2 now. So I got to... Man, this fucking sucks. Okay, you know what's fine? I'll take Claypool.

Hello. Yeah, or you could usually. You're fine. Whatever. I'll take Claypool. That's actually a pretty good pick, I feel like. Yeah, definitely. Do you guys think the Browns have any chance in this game?

I think it's ridiculous because you're coming a different coach, different play caller in on offense, different head coach, because they're splitting, the special teams coordinator's the head coach. Offensive coordinator's calling plays at the first time is this season. Listen, listen. Anytime a team is playing the Steelers and the second. half of the 2020 season. Yes, they have a chance. The Bengals beat them. Are the Browns now better than the Bengals? They still are. Listen. Listen. Listen. If the Colts, if the Steelers didn't get

hot for like 12 minutes against the Colts, I don't know what the line of this game would be. If they lost that Colts game, we'd all be picking the Browns. They have a tenuous grasp on this game. I was talking to Craig before the game and I was pretty enough how Roger Sherman tweeted this picture. Like, it was like, here is the 2020 Steelers season. It's that picture of a horse where it's like incredibly detailed and beautiful on the one side. It just turns into like a children's stick figure on the right. It's like they completely fucking fell apart. Dude, it's so true.

But yes, I mean, I do think the Steelers are going to win. I just don't want to say there's no way they lose. Do you have anyone in this game? Yeah, Mike, I'm taking Ben and Eric Ebron. So Ben is affordable. Ben's affordable. He is like the, he's $7,500, which is way down the list for, for QBs, and the reason I like him is because I couldn't figure out what past catcher I would

want, so I just figured I'm going to take Ben. Like, if the Steelers win this game, it's not going to because James Connor has 140 yards on the ground. It's going to be because Ben goes for 303. And I don't want to have to guess which receiver and spend $7,000 to potentially get the dud. So I'm just taking Ben. I mean, you went over all the defensive players who are hurt. And then from a tight end perspective, if you're not shelling out for like Mark Andrews or I guess Logan Thomas, like there's not a ton of options. And Iran's actually, you're actually been pretty solid. He's getting like eight targets a game over his last five games

and the Browns aren't very good against tight ends. So I kind of like Ebron, maybe cheap touchdown. I like that quite a bit. Okay, so let's go over our teams here. I'm not done. I'm not done. I got one more. Oh, oh, my God. My bad. My bad. I should have been more clear. I'm going bargain bin shopping on this one. David Joku for the Browns.

And the reason I'm doing this is, number one, you know, the Browns have so many guys on the COVID list right now. Harrison Bryant, who is like their number two tight end is currently on the COVID list. He could be activated before this game. We're not sure quite yet. There's indications he might be activated on like Saturday.

But if Bryant doesn't play, and even if he is activated, and he might not get that much time because he hasn't really been practicing with the team that much. Djoku is this kind of guy who could randomly just grab a touchdown, grab four or five passes and a touchdown and be pretty good. I'm rolling the dice, obviously, because I need someone who's super cheap.

Yeah. You don't care about Austin Hooper? I mean, yeah, no, I think Hooper's obviously, like, the number one guy, but, you know, the receiver's situation with the Browns is in flux. Like, they've had guys coming on and off the COVID list. I could just see him be a big part of the game plan. Okay, maybe not a big part, but like a medium part of the game. A literal part, I suppose. He will play a role.

He'll run some routes. He will play in the game in a role. Watch him literally. get zero snaps now. Okay, so let's read off. Okay, so everybody now read off your lineup as well as the money you have remaining. Okay, $50,000 budget. I have $6,600 left over.

Oh. I basically have an Allen Robinson left over. My, with all these freaking things I lost, my team is now Philip Rivers, Chey K. Dobbins, Latavius Murray, Chase Claypool, Michael Thomas, Gabe Davis, Gabe Dave, Mark Andrews, Rob Grong. Minkowski and the Titans. You, Hybinth team sucks.

Which is the worst third down in Mark and the worst pass rush. Oh, no. Wait, who did I, which one did I lose? Naheem Hines one? Yeah, you lost Hines. Oh, yeah, okay. Oh, my God. Okay, so my team, I have 200 remaining, actually, which is pretty good.

So I've got Josh Allen at QB, Gus Edwards, Alvin Camara at running back. Deonté Johnson, Godwin, and Hollywood Brown at receiver. So much better. Slightly. David and Joku is really my wild card pick here at tight end and then Zach Moss at Flex

and the Rams at defense Do you guys think the Titans defense gets me negative points or positive points? I'm going to say it gets you two Oh my God Okay I have $1,400 left over I said 6,000 left over So many

My team is Ben Rathesberger Derek Henry shouts out high fits Naeem Hines Corey Davis Darnell Mooney Stephen Diggs

Eric Ebron John Brown and the Seahawks defense I think power rankings after round one of this showdown between the three of us

TK has definitely got the best team coming out of the first episode where do I rank dead last but the Derek Henry thing really killed you can we incorporate

the rankings in addition to like who comes in first each week should we also count equally the power rankings ahead who had the highest

projections going in? Oh, I see what you're saying. No. No, it should be most over-expectations. We'll keep it in mind. We're not going to write it down. We'll pencil it in. We're not going to write it in pen. But, you know, doesn't it make you think? So the Derek Henry thing, like strategizing now for next week when we do this, it's almost tough to pick a guy like Derek Henry because you have to realize somebody else is going to pick a stud like that. And then you have to kind of come to terms with the fact that you may have to bargain for him

lose and then take somebody else who's terrible in that game. Like, you almost only want to pick guys who have good counterparts in the same game, you know? Yeah, I did a little bit of that. I did a little bit of planning like who my backup would be. Oh, wow, I did not. Maybe that's my problem. Or maybe I should just cheat on the trivia question.

Speaking of which, we love these questions. Email us more trivia questions at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Also email us a name because the showdown thing is terrible. We need a better name for this. The showdown. The show. That is so terrible. Can I give you guys one more trivia question before we go?

Yes. from Andy. Olive Garden has a dish named the Tour of Italy at the Times Square New York location. The Tour of Italy dish consists of a whole portion

of chicken parmesan, lasagna, and Fettuccini Alfredo. How much does the tour of Italy cost? 1595. Wait, it's the main course. All three of those together? It's chicken parm, lasagna,

and Fetuccini Alfredo. Jesus. No, I'm going to say... At the Olive Garden in Times Square. Oh, it's going to be inflated. Okay, I'm going to say 2295, which is still crazy cheap. I'm going to go

45. Craig, 2699. It's Craig. Boom. 26 for three main courses. Chicken farm was on and Petitio Alfredo. Unbelievable.

Tour of Italy. All right. Well, let's put our tour of Wildcard weekend. That's a great trivia question. Unreal trivia question. Yeah, please send more in. All right, that's the tour of Italy.

This was our tour of Wildcard weekend. Thank you for everyone listening to our shenanigans. Email us. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K. The show makes no sense. Who knows what's going on? Thank you ever for listening.

Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Springsteen. The boss. Oh. God, he needs the number one. He needs the number one. Give him the number one hit for crazy. He's got time.

Born to be number one. He's in his prime. He's in his prime. East Street Band.